Brooklyn DA v. Bronx DA v. Queens DA Forum

[jreg]

Which office has the more interesting work? prestige? exit ops? ( lets exclude Manhattan)

I know starting salaries for bx and queens is 54,000.
Brooklyn is 50,000.

Which office places more adas in USAO offices or main justice?

Which office is the best to work for and offers the most opportunity for exciting work?

[Voyager]

Which office has the more interesting work? prestige? exit ops? ( lets exclude Manhattan)

I know starting salaries for bx and queens is 54,000.
Brooklyn is 50,000.

Which office places more adas in USAO offices or main justice?

Which office is the best to work for and offers the most opportunity for exciting work?

Bronx or Queens. Avoid Brooklyn. Understand that SDNY does not hire ADAs. Other offices may.

I'd lean towards Queens, but I liked Bronx as well. Actually, I had an offer at Bronx for an ADA position. Happy to answer questions about interviewing.

[Series70]

^ Can you elaborate on why Brooklyn should be avoided?

Also: I was told that about 30% of the AUSAs at the EDNY are former ADAs, while the rest came from firms, FWIW.

[Anonymous User]

Avoid Brooklyn like the plague. They're incredibly top heavy - they have like 100 executive level ADAs who get paid $130k+ and try all the interesting cases that come in. Everyone else is like a line worker at the ford assembly plant. They plug you in somewhere, and you do that jonb for 6 months, a year, maybe more. You end up drafting cases in ECAB for a year straight. Or you end up in an all purpose part day in day out for 4 months. THey do everything horozontally so you never really get into your cases (except some felonies and DV). You wont even have any cases at all when you start. They're also notorious for rescinding offers (probably because they spend 75% of their budget on 15% of the people who work there. Everything about the office is partisan and political too. You can be fired on a whim for annoying the wrong person.

Queens, and to a lesser extent, the Bronx, train you to develop into an experienced trial lawyer. You pick up your own misdemeanors and build them from day 1. You try them. You go back in 6 months and do an intensive trial ad program. The hope is that you develop into someone who can handle and try complicated cases that interest you (homicides, sex crimes, white-collar, narcotics, etc.). The Bronx is similar but they really throw you into the fire early.

There are a ton of former ADAs at the EDNY. The vast, vast majority came from Manhattan, with a smattering of Bronx and Queens.Whoever said there are no former ADAs at SDNY is wrong. There are at least 3 that I know of who came from, and I'm positive there are more. SDNY though does seem to hire very few ADAs, though, and the ones they do tend to be T6 LR types.

[Voyager]

Avoid Brooklyn like the plague. They're incredibly top heavy - they have like 100 executive level ADAs who get paid $130k+ and try all the interesting cases that come in. Everyone else is like a line worker at the ford assembly plant. They plug you in somewhere, and you do that jonb for 6 months, a year, maybe more. You end up drafting cases in ECAB for a year straight. Or you end up in an all purpose part day in day out for 4 months. THey do everything horozontally so you never really get into your cases (except some felonies and DV). You wont even have any cases at all when you start. They're also notorious for rescinding offers (probably because they spend 75% of their budget on 15% of the people who work there. Everything about the office is partisan and political too. You can be fired on a whim for annoying the wrong person.

Queens, and to a lesser extent, the Bronx, train you to develop into an experienced trial lawyer. You pick up your own misdemeanors and build them from day 1. You try them. You go back in 6 months and do an intensive trial ad program. The hope is that you develop into someone who can handle and try complicated cases that interest you (homicides, sex crimes, white-collar, narcotics, etc.). The Bronx is similar but they really throw you into the fire early.

There are a ton of former ADAs at the EDNY. The vast, vast majority came from Manhattan, with a smattering of Bronx and Queens.Whoever said there are no former ADAs at SDNY is wrong. There are at least 3 that I know of who came from, and I'm positive there are more. SDNY though does seem to hire very few ADAs, though, and the ones they do tend to be T6 LR types.

That is what I meant: SDNY hires hardly any ADAs. Extremely rare. And when i asked SDNY AUSAs about it, they seemed to sneer at ADAs and said they don't like to hire them.

[Anonymous User]

so no Brooklyn ADAS have made the transition to EDNY or MainJustice?

Based upon the profiles of people i have found online, it seems that former Kings County ADAS have done better for themselves than ADAs in the Bronx or Queens.

A couple of white collar government investigation people in large law firms. None so from the Bronx or Queens.

[Anonymous User]

Most of the Brooklyn ADAs you see at firms and in gov't were there pre-Hynes. It used to be regarded as a great office, almost on par with Manhattan, but in the last 10-15 years it's gone straight downhill.

[Anonymous User]

your right. I looked them up again. They were there in the early 80's, pre Hynes.

SO you would list in order of prestige and better office now: Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn?

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone who did a 3rd round with the Bronx heard back yet? Or anyone know when they usually contact you and how (i.e. phone call, letter, etc.)?

Any info would be great...I'm crawling up the wall...

[Anonymous User]

yea they did 3rd rounds in dec. they contacted me by phone. there were alotttt of people interviewing. they did about 4 every half hour for a couple of weeks.
people i spoke to ranged from schools from nyc to all over. most were trial ad/ moot court stars with a few comps under their belt. They said offers wont be extended until june due to budget but i know a few top level candidates that received offers.

[Anonymous User]

I know a few people from last year got offers in aug/sept. They did interview a lot this year, but most of the people in my interview group seemed pretty normal and not like rockin superstars (moot ct or otherwise). Five new ADAs starting this month too, so I'm guessing as long as you haven't gotten a rejection letter, you can hold out hope.

[Anonymous User]

What chances would someone have at one of the NYC DA's offices if they didn't have moot court/mock trial but had a demonstrated commitment to public interest and volunteer work and worked as a summer intern in one of the offices?

[Anonymous User]

Hmm... I'd like to know that too...

[Anonymous User]

deleted.

[Anonymous User]

What chances would someone have at one of the NYC DA's offices if they didn't have moot court/mock trial but had a demonstrated commitment to public interest and volunteer work and worked as a summer intern in one of the offices?

[Anonymous User]

What chances would someone have at one of the NYC DA's offices if they didn't have moot court/mock trial but had a demonstrated commitment to public interest and volunteer work and worked as a summer intern in one of the offices?

Pretty good I'd guess. I didn't do moot court or mock trial (outside of trial ad class and an internship) but I worked in a bunch of prosecutors' offices and I was hired at Manhattan DA.

[Anonymous User]

For those who are familiar with USAO hiring practices of ADAs, how well do ADAs from the Long Island offices fare?

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard anything from Queens or the Bronx regarding a summer internship? I sent in my Bronx application in late October, and Queens in November...haven't heard a thing - losing hope.

[newyorker88]

Avoid Brooklyn like the plague.

[Anonymous User]

Avoid Brooklyn like the plague.

Mind sharing? Is it the inconsistency of the experience based on which dept you work in? I have a friend who interned and loved it, so I'd be interested in hearing the counterpoint.

[Anonymous User]

Avoid Brooklyn like the plague.

Mind sharing? Is it the inconsistency of the experience based on which dept you work in? I have a friend who interned and loved it, so I'd be interested in hearing the counterpoint.

Yeah, I interned there too and loved it.

[Anonymous User]

Any more thoughts or insights into working in the Bronx after graduation?

[Anonymous User]

Bump. Anyone get a summer internship offer at any of these offices? I received email from Brooklyn that there would be an early march status update, but nothing from Bronx/Queens.

[Anonymous User]

Bump on the internship questions. I called the Bronx ~2 weeks ago and they said they wouldn't be starting to review for a while, but the woman I spoke to didn't seem too sure.

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know whether any of these DA's offices drug test for marijuana? If so, when? Is it a one-time test, or are ADAs subject to random testing?

SWIM would think that there is a drug test, but isn't sure. SWIM has already accepted an offer from brooklyn, but SWIM won't be sworn in until january. They never mentioned anything to SWIM about a drug screen in any of SWIM's four interviews, nor did they mention it in the 3-year employment contract, which SWIM signed and mailed back to the office about two months ago. SWIM hasn't heard anything about it since. Anyone know from first hand experience?